Single tower suspension bridges

ABSTRACT

A SINGLE TOWER SUSPENSION BRIDGE IS CONSTRUCTED WHICH COMPRISES A TOWER, A FIXED SUPPORT FOR THE TOWER, SADDLES SUPPORTED ON THE TOWER, A PLURALITY OF MAIN CABLES SUPPORTED BY SAID SADDLES AND EXTENDING GENERALLY DOWNWARDLY THEREFROM, TWO SPANS WHICH TOGETHER RUN THE LENGTH OF THE BRIDGE, A PLURALITY OF SUSPENDER CABLES EXTENDING FROM THE MAIN CABLES AND SUPPORTING SAID SPANS AND ANCHORAGE MEANS FOR SECURING THE CABLE ENDS.

p 20, 1971 D. e. CONSTANTINO 3,605,153

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mm: rowan susransxomnznens Original Filed Feb. 13, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVI'I'NI'UH, D. GEORGE CONSTANTINO ATTORNEYS United States Patent 01 hce 3,605,153 SINGLE TOWER SUSPENSION BRIDGES Dominick George Constantino, 196-43 49th Ave., Flushing, N.Y. 11365 Continuation of application Ser. No. 798,926, Feb. 13, 1969, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 616,760, Feb. 14, 1967. This application Mar. 10, 1970, Ser. No. 17,042

Int. Cl. E0111 11/00 US. Cl. 14-18 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 798,926, now abandoned, which is a continuation-inpart of my application Ser. No. 616,760 filed Feb. 14, 1967, now abandoned.

The present invention is concerned with suspension bridges. Such bridges carry various kinds of trafiic such as automobiles, railroad trains, pedestrians and the like.

More particularly, the present invention comprises a suspension bridge which is of a simpler design and is more economical to construct than prior art bridges. The bridge of the present invention is especially advantageous when erected over two channel waterways. There is only a single main tower for the bridge and it is located at about the mid-point of the waterway thus forming two channels.

The present invention eliminates the necessity for more than one tower and the plurality of tower supporting piers which is usually employed to support known types of bridges and thus represents a substantial advance in the art.

According to the present invention, my suspension bridge comprises a single main tower, a fixed foundation or support for the main tower, main tower saddles disposed at the upper end of the tower, a plurality of curved main cables, generally in the form of a descending curve, suspended from said tower saddles and extending generally downwardly and in opposite directions to span the length of the bridge, two spans supporting a surface suitable for carrying trafiic traversing the bridge, longitudinal truss means associated therewith, a plurality of vertical suspender cables supporting said truss means from said main cables, and anchorage means to which the distal ends of the cables are secured, said anchorage means also supporting the truss means adjacent the distal ends thereof.

Cantilever bridges and multi-span continuous truss type bridges are known in the art. Such bridges are expensive to construct and often difiicult to erect because numerous supports, many compression members and securing means are required. Many waterways are not well suited to such types of bridges particularly where long spans are required. US. Pat. No. 2,960,704 describes various suspension bridges. FIG. 11 of that patent shows a perspective view of a one tower inclined stay cable suspension bridge but does not have the loaded cable and vertical suspender construction of my bridge.

Bridges such as the Bronx-Whitestone described in Engineering News Record Oct. 2, 1947, pp. 98100, in particular, are two tower bridges.

3,505,153 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 My bridge is especially useful and advantageous because it is capable of spanning substantial waterways less expensively than known types of bridges since much otherwise needed materials are dispensed with. For example, my bridge can span 2,000 and 3,000 foot waterways.

My bridge eliminates the central main suspension spans of conventional suspension bridges. The main tower of my bridge and the main foundation support for the tower are adapted to carry a major portion of the vertical thrust load of the bridge. The anchorage means utilized preferably includes anchor piers at the distal ends of the main cables, and saddle piers spaced inwardly from the distal ends of the main cables. According to a further embodiment of my invention, I utilize a self-anchored bridge construction with my new single tower suspension bridge.

The following drawings more fully illustrate the prior art and the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a cantilever bridge having four main towers, two main spans, and additional minor spans and trusses which extend overland;

FIG. 2 is a perspective of a five span continuous truss and cantilever bridge;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of my single tower suspension bridge spanning a two-channel waterway;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the bridge of FIG. 3, showing the main cables, main trusses, lower roadways and piers of the bridge;

FIG. 5 is a vertical section taken along the line 5-5 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of my single tower suspension bridge with the self-anchoring feature.

The cantilever bridge 10 shown in FIG. 1 is the Queensboro Bridge over the East River in New York City. This bridge extends from the Manhattan side of the river, shown at the left in FIG. 1, to the Queens side, shown at the right. The bridge has four piers 11, 12, 13 and 15 with respective towers 11, 12', 13', and 15. Two central piers 12 and 13 are supported by a natural island 14, i.e. Welfare Island, which divides the river into two channels. Bridge 10 has five cantilever spans extending, respectively, between an anchor pier 16 at the left and pier 11 disposed adjacent the bank of the river at the Manhattan end, the second span extending from pier 11 to the central pier 12 on the island, the third span between the central piers 12 and 13, the fourth span extending between pier 13 and pier 15 supported on the Queens shore, and a fifth span extending between pier 15 and pier 17 on the Queens mainland. This bridge is obviously complicated in structure, and construction includes the construction and positioning of six very substantial piers, as well as very extensive truss work forming the various cantilever spans.

FIG. 2 shows a continuous truss and cantilever span bridge which spans the Mississippi River. Bridge 24 has four main piers and towers 25-28, inclusive, which in this instance are supported upon foundations or caisson type foundations disposed in the river. Not only are such foundations expensive to construct, but they divide the waterway into four channels and constitute obstructions in the river which under some weather conditions constitute a serious danger to shipping. In addition, this bridge has left and right anchorage piers 30 and 31, respectively, which provide support for the outer ends of the cantilever spans at the ends of the bridge.

Turning now to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, my bridge 36, has only a single main tower 37 which is supported upon a member or foundation 39 disposed in a suitable securing means 40. Such securing means may, for example, be a natural or artificial island, a shoal portion of the river bed, or a caisson type foundation. The foundation divides the waterway into a left channel 41 and a right channel 3 42, thereby leaving the waterway unobstructed except for the necessary central member or foundation 39.

The bridge has a left anchor pier 44, a left saddle pier 45 having a saddle 55 thereon, a right saddle pier 46 having a saddle 55' thereon, and a right anchor pier 47. The saddle piers carry substantially the balance of the vertical thrust of the bridge. The main tower 37 is provided with saddles 49 on its upper end. The saddles support a plurality of main cables 50 which extend generally in the form of curves downwardly from the main tower to respective saddle piers 45 and 46 thence in inclined lines to anchor piers 44 and 47, in which they are anchored by means shown generally at 53, or they are anchored as shown in FIG. 6. As shown best in FIG. 5, two main cables 50 are employed on each side of the bridge. The two spans 51 and 52, which are joined at the center of the bridge and extend in opposite directions therefrom to the saddle piers 45 and 46 are made in the form of trusses, as shown. The major portion of the vertical thrust load of the spans 51 and 52 and the traffic load thereon are carried by the main tower 37, although a portion of such load is borne by the saddle piers 45 and 46 upon which the truss ends of such spans rest and saddles whereon the main cables rest. Tower 37 and saddle piers 45 and 46 carry the spans 51 and 52 by means of a plurality of vertical suspender cables 54 which are secured to and extend downwardly from the main cables 50 which are secured to the truss forming such spans in the manner shown in FIG. 5.

Further spans 56 and 57 extend between the anchor piers and the saddle piers. Such further spans, as well as spans 51 and 52, are made in the form of longitudinally extending trusses which include main vertical members 59 and upper and lower main transverse members 60 and 61. In the preferred embodiment these trusses bear upper and lower roadways, the lower roadway including roadways 62 for automobiles and the like, and a central road bed 64 for a railroad. The upper roadway 65 in this instance are constructed to carry vehicles while footwalk 66 is for pedestrian trafiic.

As shown in FIG. 6 in place of the anchoring means most clearly shown in FIG. 3, the ends of my bridge A and A' are movably secured to piers 70 and 71 by means 72 and 72'. The ends of the main cables are then secured to the ends A and A by securing means 73 and 73'.

The anchor means 72 and 72 may be lubricated plates, rockers, rollers and like, which are per se known and securing means 73 and 73 may be pin, rivets or the like.

It will be seen from the above description that my bridge presents numerous advantages over conventional bridges having a plurality of towers, of the cable suspension, of the cantilever, truss and other types. My bridge eliminates more than half of the water piers of conventional bridges. The wires and cables of suspension bridges are much lighter than the trusses required in cantilever bridges. It will be appreciated that the savings in material and time required for construction of the bridge of the present invention are very substantial.

What is claimed is:

1. A single tower suspension bridge which comprises a single centrally disposed tower, means for supporting said single tower, tower saddles disposed on the upper end of said tower, a plurality of curve shaped main cables supported by said tower saddles and extending generally downwardly therefrom in opposite directions longitudinally of the bridge to saddle piers and thence to anchoring piers, supported truss spans joined at the center of the bridge, extending in opposite directions from the tower and having their ends partially supported on the saddle piers and a center pier, a plurality of vertical suspender cables also partially supporting said true spans from the main cables between pier supports and progressively diminishing in height from the tower to the saddle piers, fixed anchoring piers disposed beyond the distal ends of the truss spans, said main cables extending over said saddle piers and being anchored to said anchor piers.

2. A single tower suspension bridge according to claim 1, wherein there are further spans between the saddle and anchor piers and the anchoring piers directly underlie and support the opposite ends of the further spans.

3. A single tower suspension bridge according to claim 2 wherein said tower supporting means is a mid-stream foundation to leave two unobstructed channels.

4. A single tower suspension bridge according to claim 2 wherein the main cables supported by said saddles extend the full length of said bridge, the truss spans are two in number each of which with the further spans forms a surface suitable for trafiic extending from each end of the bridge to the center where the spans are joined, the suspender cables which support said spans extending downwardly from said rnain cables to the anchor piers at the ends of the bridge, the anchor piers securing the ends of the spans to the shore.

5. A single tower suspension bridge according to claim 1 which further comprises means for movably securing the ends of the bridge to their respective piers and means for securing the ends of the main cables to the anchor piers at the ends of the bridge below bridge level.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,429,332 10/1947 Shoemaker 14-21 2,914,783 12/1959 Hoyden 14-21 2,960,704 11/1960 Stoltenburg 14-18 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,176,170 8/1964 Germany 14-18 OTHER REFERENCES Engineering News-Record, Oct. 2, 1947, p. 98.

JACOB L. NACKENOFF, Primary Examiner 

